Chapter 20

  Theo was prepared this time; he was waiting for the moment when the vampire tried to mess with his mind. This time, since he was looking out for the subtle manipulations, he felt the compulsion to blink and the overlay of the false image. As Theo closed his eyes and then opened them, he saw an immaculate foyer where the chandelier hung suspended in the air. All the damage was undone in the false image. Before Theo could get a good look at the overlay, with a mental nudge, he shattered the false image. He saw the vampire wearing a butler uniform; Wentz, because of the backlash, of the broken illusion. With that, he saw that the vampire was almost the same as the illusion, except that the fangs pointed out from his upper lip. Theo spoke without missing a beat, pretending that he didn’t see the vampire, Wentz.

  “While yes, sir, this town is so lovely, and I just had to see the castle, and the townsfolk have been so welcoming,” Theo said with mock sincerity as the vampire got close to Theo.

  The vampire, with a smirk, played along. “Yes, this is such a lovely town since the new Lord took over,” the vampire said.

  At this point, they were in arm's reach of each other. With a mental command, he had the chains from his legs uncoil and wrap around the vampire’s legs, then anchor themselves in the stone floor. The vampire screamed, and Theo was hit with emotions of rage and frustration, and his mental defenses crumbled. When he blinked his eyes and reopened them, he was still in the same room, but now his vision was tinted a blood-red hue. Everything he saw was a shade of red, and right in front of him was a creature the color of dried blood, so dark, almost black, screaming at him.

  “I will drain you dry, turn you into a husk, then reanimate your corpse to make you my servant for all eternity! Now release me!” the vampire screamed.

  With that utterance, another wave of compulsion hit Theo. He almost complied. At the moment he thought about giving the command to loosen the chains around the vampire Butler, he had a thought,

  “Wait a minute, why would I do this?” And he became pissed. Theo pulled out one of the chairs from his inventory, sat in it, and started to meditate while the vampire screamed in increasingly louder volume as he described horrible ways that he was going to torture him. Theo had his eyes closed before he focused on meditation. He sent the other two chains from his arms to wrap around the vampire’s arms and torso. The vampire could only keep up this skill he was using for another three minutes; then the illusion collapsed. And Theo opened his eyes and saw the exhausted vampire hanging limp from the chains in the empty foyer. Summoning his cane sword and unsheathing it, he imbued it with Cleanse, then pierced the vampire's head with the sword. The vampire… combusted in pink flames. The chains that were wrapped around the vampire’s arms and torso fell to the ground, and the two that were pierced into the floor were still coiled up as the world held an invisible captive, with the thought Theo had all four of them wrapped around his limbs and headed to the door where the vampire came out of, ignoring his notifications because the day was far from over.

  “God, this is going to be fucking annoying. Fuck these monsters, fuck my decision to train my bloodline,” Theo ranted internally.

  Theo opened the door and walked through the door from which the vampire butler had come. It led to a hallway, and off in the distance were elaborate doors that looked somewhat intact. There were rooms on either side of the hallway; the room that Theo entered looked like a waiting room.

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  “I’m guessing the elaborate doors will be the entrance to the throne room,” Theo thought as he got close to the presumed throne room and opened up the doors. Inside, he saw an armored knight standing in the middle of the room; the throne was behind him, raised on a stone platform. The throne itself was actually pretty tame, even to the same theme. It was also carved out of stone and inscribed with numerous runes. There looked like there used to be padding, but it was rotted away, and of course, it was empty. Turning his head left and right, he saw chairs aligned against the wall, making it feel like a makeshift arena around the knight. Theo stepped into the room; the knight raised its shield and sword at the same time Theo used Identify.

  Vampire Knight Level 24.

  Theo raised his sword, made the chains visible on his arms, and walked calmly towards the knight. It said nothing as Theo got closer, then, without warning, it charged Theo. Theo sidestepped to the right with inches to spare from the knight's sword. Theo imbued his sword with cleanse and tried to retaliate with a slash across the knight's torso. The knight parried Theo’s strike and used his left arm, which had a shield on it, to shield-bash Theo. He stumbled back, still off-balance. The knight charged Theo, using the chain on his left arm to shoot it out like a whip towards the knight to give Theo a couple of seconds to regain his balance. Then Theo summoned the spectral guardian behind the knight, and they began to dance a deadly dance. The spectral guardian swiped at the knight, catching him off guard. Theo took the opportunity and plunged his sword into the gap between the breastplate and the helmet, channeling a Cleans effect. The knight burst into pink flames, and the armor pieces fell to the floor with ash around them.

  “Fuck, that was intense,” Theo thought.

  Theo heard a thump of something hitting stone. Turning his gaze towards the throne, he noticed there was now something lying on it. Walking up the stone steps, he saw that there was a waterskin on the throne. Using Identify, he assessed it.

  Self-refilling water skin, common, masterwork. Channel your magic into the water skin, and the magic will be converted into water, keeping you well hydrated. As a quirk of the craftsman who made this water skin, the water tastes like spring water.

  Theo picked it up, channeling his magic through the runes on the water skin. He felt it get heavier until the water skin was full and no more magic could be channeled through it. Opening the lip of the water skin, he took a sip, and like the description said, it tasted like spring water. Theo drank his fill and stored it in his storage ring.

  “That’s pretty handy,” Theo thought.

  Looking around, there were no other doors in this room. Theo headed out of the throne room and walked back onto the floor of the castle. Theo decided to go to the right hallway. Walking down, he entered the kitchen. It was a spacious area that accommodated at least 20 cooks and staff to work comfortably. Looking around, it was a mix of modern equipment, including enchantments, and medieval cooking devices, such as a wood-burning stove and a device that resembled a modern blender.

  “Weird,” Theo mumbled to himself. Looking around, he noticed a door that had been bashed in and headed towards it. There was a staircase that went down. Going down with the sword drawn, he entered the storage room of the kitchen. Broken boxes that had runes engraved into them and barrels were all around him, with remnants of what used to be foodstuffs. On the back wall, he noticed an open entrance, and dozens of corpses lay around it. Theo strolled towards the dead bodies and used Identify to see if any vampires were lying in the corpse pile. No enemies were detected, but still, as he got closer, and imbuing the chain on his left arm, Theo slammed it down on the corpses, remembering a game he played back in the day that was in the dead of space: that if you don’t destroy the bodies will come back to life and, you will regret it. After thoroughly smashing the corpses, Theo walked down the opening. It was a smooth, unadorned stone hallway with no light whatsoever. Theo imbued Cure Wounds on his sword, giving off a white light as he walked down the hallway. There were corpses in the underground tunnel. As he walked, he smashed all of them. After a couple of minutes, he entered a vault; all the shelves and walls were stripped bare. The only thing was a group of dead guards in a circle, and in the middle of the circle was a vampire wearing a black robe with blazing black eyes. It spoke with a gravelly voice:

  “Good evening, venturer, welcome to your grave,” the vampire said.

  As the black miasma emanating from the skeleton enveloped the corpses, they began to shift and shake, and then started to rise.